Is it time to raise the speed limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to 70?

Congested areas of the Pennsylvania Turnpike have become wider. S-curves have been straightened. The steep banks have been lowered.

And today’s vehicles possess more safety features than ever.

For all those reasons, a western Pennsylvania lawmaker thinks the time is right to give the Turnpike Commission the option of raising the maximum speed limit on sections of the cross-state toll road from 65 mph to 70.

A bill, sponsored by state Rep. Joe Preston, D-Allegheny County, that would allow the higher speed limit is under consideration in the state House. It won approval of the chamber’s transportation committee last week by an 18-4 vote.

It remains unclear whether the full House will consider it, but House Republican leaders are reviewing it, caucus spokesman Steve Miskin said.

Preston has spent hours driving the turnpike between his Pittsburgh home and the state Capitol over three decades, and improvements are obvious.

“When you spend 15,000 to 18,000 miles a year on the turnpike, you notice the difference,” Preston said. “All I’m trying to do is give them the [leeway] to make it 70 mph if they so choose in different spots. It doesn’t change it. It just gives them the opportunity to change it.”

A Turnpike Commission spokesman said that while the commission has not taken a position on the legislation, it is monitoring its progress. Even if it did become law, spokesman William Capone said the change wouldn’t happen overnight. It likely would take months for traffic-safety engineering studies to be done in the sections of highway where the higher speed limit is proposed and for new speed-limit signs to be made.

The speed limit on most stretches of the turnpike was raised to 65 mph in 1995 and 1996, from 55 mph. But portions of the toll road near tunnels and some toll plazas remain at 55 mph.

Frequent turnpike users contacted yesterday favored the higher limit.

“Actually, for me, I would like it,” said Winton DeShong of Harrisburg. “I tend to drive a little faster, so 70 would be just fine.”

DeShong said safety is not a concern, mainly because “it’s only a 5 mph difference.”

Vince Sullivan, also of Harrisburg, said he drives the turnpike a lot while traveling to and from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is a senior.

“When I’m driving, I at least go 70 on the turnpike,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know if that would cause safety issues or not, but it will definitely allow me to not worry as much when I can get to Pittsburgh in maybe three hours instead of 3½ hours,” he added.

The Pennsylvania AAA Federation is remaining neutral on the proposal.

“People tend to travel at a speed with which they are comfortable. I’ve seen statements where people say if you put it at 70, people will go 80. I’m not sure that’s the case. I think with it being 65, a lot of people are going 70 anyhow,” Executive Director Ted Leonard said.

He suggested to Preston that he should make an engineering study in advance of any speed-limit increase along with a follow-up study that looks at crash data as requirements in the legislation.

Turnpike spokesman Carl DeFebo said he does not foresee a problem with doing a follow-up study should one be required.

Results of a study released in March by the Governors Highway Safety Association spoke of the significant toll to life and limb that speeding is taking on the nation’s roadways.

“Year in and year out, speeding is one of the most prevalent factors involved in all crashes, cited by law enforcement as a contributing factor in almost one-third of all fatal crashes in 2010, a number that has not changed significantly in several decades,” stated the “Speeding and Aggressive Driving” report.

Despite the increase in fatalities attributed to higher speed limits on all road types that took effect after the repeal of the national 55-mph speed limit, Pennsylvania was among the states that increased its to 65 mph in 1995.

Last July, Texas pushed its limit to unrivaled heights, raising it to 85 mph on some rural interstate highways.

Also last year, the Ohio Turnpike raised its speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph on the 241-mile span, which crosses flat, open terrain in northern Ohio. The number of crashes during the first year of the higher speed limit rose by 5.6 percent from the year before, according to an April 29 story in The [Cleveland] Plain-Dealer,

That statistic is something the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission will undoubtedly consider if Preston’s bill becomes law, considering the mountainous stretches of Pennsylvania’s turnpike compared to the flatter terrain of Ohio, Capone said.

Jim Runk, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association, said his organization isn’t taking a position on the bill.

He said most tractor-trailer rigs have speed-limiting devices to keep down their top speeds.

Truck driver Luther Nelson, of Albany, N.Y., can vouch for that. “My truck doesn’t go 70, but 70 wouldn’t be a problem with me,” he said, during a rest stop at Petro Stopping Center in Middlesex Twp. “People go faster than that now anyway.”

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